NULL_POINT() // SYSTEM REFERENCE // ATTRIBUTES v0.3
Attributes
Six attributes, scale 1–6. Creation cap 4. Reaching 4 requires dropping one other attribute to 1.
Physique
Raw force, endurance, and the body's capacity to absorb punishment
Physique covers everything the body does by force — lifting, breaking, enduring, absorbing. It is not speed or coordination; those belong to Reflex. Physique is raw capacity: how much the character can push, how long they can keep moving when damaged, and how much physical trauma they can absorb before they stop functioning. A high Physique character doesn't just hit harder — they stay in the fight longer and shrug off conditions that would sideline anyone else.
- Wound Threshold — the point at which incoming damage begins to accumulate penalties. Physique / 2, round up.
- Unarmed damage — base damage on unaugmented melee strikes contributes Physique directly.
- Carry capacity — informally governed; Physique 1 characters are narratively limited in what they can haul.
Sedentary or physically diminished. Struggles with sustained exertion. Takes damage quickly and recovers slowly. Not built for anything physical.
Baseline adult fitness. Handles normal physical demands. Can take a hit but feels it. Most non-combat NPCs sit here.
Actively trained. Handles physical adversity without complaint. The floor for functional street runners who expect to take hits.
Creation cap. Elite athlete or augmented baseline. Noticeably powerful — bends bars, shrugs off blows that floor others. Wound Threshold is a real wall.
Post-creation advancement or heavy physical augmentation. At the edge of what unaugmented biology allows. Street legends are built at this tier.
Cyberware-assisted or rare genetic outlier. Inhuman physical capability. Takes hits that would kill most people and keeps moving.
Reflex
Speed, coordination, and the body's ability to respond before the mind catches up
Reflex is the body acting faster than thought — the flinch, the draw, the step out of the bullet's path. It governs how quickly a character responds to the world and how precisely they move when precision matters. A high Reflex character doesn't necessarily think faster; they act faster, and in The Sprawl, half a second is the difference between the shooter and the shot. Reflex also determines who goes first when everyone's reaching for the same thing.
- Initiative — base initiative value is Reflex. Higher Reflex means acting earlier and more often per combat phase.
- Defense contributions — Reflex pairs with Defense skill for active evasion rolls.
- Ranged attack base — most firearms and thrown weapons pair with Reflex as the default attribute.
Reacts late. Drops things. Always last to the draw. Not built for combat — any fight they're in, they entered reluctantly.
Catches things when they're tossed gently. Reacts to expected threats. Handles a firearm without embarrassing themselves.
Noticeably quick. Draws clean, moves smooth. The baseline for runners who expect to get into firefights regularly.
Creation cap. Reactions that make people blink. Moves like they knew it was coming. Hard to pin down in a firefight.
Augmented or freakishly gifted. Acts before most people have processed the threat exists. Multiple actions per phase.
The ceiling of what chrome and genetics can produce. Near-prescient reaction speed. Combatants at this tier reshape engagements around their initiative.
Logic
Reasoning, analysis, and the capacity to solve problems the world doesn't have instructions for
Logic is the deliberate mind — analysis, deduction, and systematic problem solving. Where Intuition reads a room, Logic deconstructs it. It governs every skill domain that rewards structured thinking over instinct: hacking, engineering, medicine, research. Logic also drives TechMage casting — the Static treated as code rather than current, executed through known protocols rather than felt through resonance.
- TechMage casting pool — Signal + Logic for all Static effects on the TechMage path.
- Technical skill base — Hacking, Engineering, Medicine, Electronics all default to Logic.
- Knowledge recall base — Logic / 2 is the default pool for active Knowledge skill rolls when the domain is analytical.
Struggles with multi-step problems. Follows instructions poorly. Can't be relied on for anything technical.
Functional. Can follow a plan and learn basic technical skills. Most runners without a technical focus sit here.
Thinks fast and clean. Comfortable with complex systems. The floor for anyone doing serious technical or Net work.
Creation cap. Routinely solves problems others can't formulate. Sees systems others see as black boxes.
Rare. Makes intuitive leaps that hold up under scrutiny. The kind of mind corps pay obscene sums to own.
Thinks in systems too large for most people to hold. Solves problems that don't have solutions yet. Almost certainly augmented.
Intuition
Instinct, awareness, and the composure to trust what you feel before you can explain it
Intuition is the part of the mind that notices things before the conscious brain catches up — the wrongness in a room, the tells in a negotiation, the feeling that the job is about to go sideways. It absorbs what other games split into separate stats: awareness, composure, and social reads all live here. In The Sprawl, where everyone is performing and information is layered behind three firewalls, the ability to feel your way through a situation is as valuable as being able to analyze it.
- Technoshamans casting pool — Signal + Intuition for all Static effects on the Shaman path.
- Perception base — noticing things, reading environments, spotting ambushes pair with Intuition.
- Knowledge recall base — Intuition / 2 is the default pool for active Knowledge skill rolls.
- Social composure — resisting manipulation, reading intent, and holding a cover story under pressure.
Misses obvious tells. Gets played. Startled by things that were visible for three seconds before they mattered. A liability in social or surveillance situations.
Normal human attentiveness. Catches most things if paying attention. Can be fooled by a competent liar.
Notices the room. Reads people well. Hard to blindside. The floor for anyone working social or intelligence angles.
Creation cap. Feels the shape of a situation before it fully materialises. Almost never caught flat-footed in social contexts.
The kind of awareness that makes people nervous. Picks up things that shouldn't be legible. Difficult to deceive without significant preparation.
Borders on unsettling. In Static-sensitive individuals, may bleed into genuine signal awareness. Every room they enter, they've already mapped.
Grit
Pain tolerance, psychological resilience, and the refusal to stop functioning when everything says you should
Grit is the attribute that keeps a character on their feet when they have no business being there. It covers the physical threshold for pain and the psychological threshold for everything else — the ability to take a wound and keep shooting, to watch something terrible happen and not freeze, to absorb a failed Static effect and stay coherent. Grit is not bravado; it's the quiet interior thing that determines whether a character functions or fractures under the specific pressure The Sprawl specializes in applying.
- Pain Resistance — the threshold at which wound penalties begin accumulating. Grit / 2, round up.
- Blowback resistance roll — Grit + Sensitivity is the pool for resisting incoming Static effects for Technomancers.
- Trauma composure — psychological shock, horror, and sustained pressure all roll against Grit.
Flinches. Freezes under pressure. Pain and shock affect them immediately and significantly. Not suited for anything that goes wrong.
Gets through. Uncomfortable with pain, troubled by trauma, but functional. Most people are here. Most people aren't doing this job.
Has absorbed things and kept moving. Wounds don't immediately degrade performance. Psychologically tested and functional. The floor for runners who expect contact.
Creation cap. Pain is information, not an obstacle. Psychologically difficult to destabilise. Keeps acting when others have stopped.
Absorbs punishment that should end people. Functionally immune to most psychological pressure tactics. Something has forged this.
Functions under conditions that would shatter almost anyone. Whether this is a gift or a scar is a character question, not a mechanical one.
Sensitivity
Exposure to the Static — a channel that cuts both ways
Sensitivity measures how open a character is to the Static — the ambient signal layer that Technomancers draw power from. For Technomancers it is the most consequential attribute in their kit, governing effect access, buffer size, and Blowback severity. For mundane characters it is a double-edged exposure: higher Sensitivity makes them more perceptive of Static activity but easier to target with Technomancer effects. Cyberware actively suppresses Sensitivity regardless of natural aptitude — chrome and the Static do not coexist cleanly.
- Buffer size (Technomancers) — Sensitivity × 2. The ablative layer between Blowback and the caster.
- Effect access thresholds — Sensitivity gates which Static effects are available. See Technomancer system.
- Flat soak modifier — 6 − Sensitivity. Higher Sensitivity strips passive protection; at 7+ the formula goes negative and amplifies Blowback.
- Mundane vulnerability — incoming Static effects gain bonus successes equal to target Sensitivity − 1.
Baseline human. Static washes over them without purchase. Neutral vulnerability to Technomancer effects. Most mundanes are here.
Faint awareness of signal bleed nearby. Slightly more exposed to Static effects than baseline. Mundane ceiling for casual investment.
Mundane cap. Noticeable Static presence — something is different about this person, though they may not know what. Meaningfully easier to target. Awareness benefit TBD.
Technomancer threshold. Mid-tier effects available. Functional buffer. Flat soak of 2 — still some passive protection. The Parish/Vessel starting point.
All effects accessible. Large buffer. Flat soak reduced to 1 — nearly unprotected passively, relies on resist roll and buffer entirely.
Maximum buffer. Zero flat soak. Every Blowback instance depends entirely on the resist roll. The glass cannon ceiling — extraordinary power, no passive safety net.
Chrome volume sets a hard ceiling on effective Sensitivity regardless of points invested. The suppressed value governs all mechanical purposes — buffer size, effect access, flat soak, and vulnerability modifier. Natural aptitude above the ceiling is suppressed, not lost; reducing cyberware restores full Sensitivity immediately.
SIGNIFICANT PIECES → EFFECTIVE SENSITIVITY
| Pieces | Multiplier | Sen 6 | Sen 5 | Sen 4 | Sen 3 | Sen 2 | Sen 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Full | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| 1 | × ⅞ rd | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 2 | × ¾ rd | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | × ½ rd | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | × ¼ rd | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | floor 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | floor 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Every 3 minor cyberware additions counts as 1 significant piece. Cosmetic or surface augmentation does not count.